Vanessa is a regular contributor to Impress Your Kids. She is a stay-at-home mom to an energetic three-year-old, Juliet. They spend their days together reading books, attempting crafts, and occasionally beating tree trunks with large sticks. You can read more about their adventures at Silly Eagle Books

With Father’s Day approaching, I have been trying to get “ahead of the game” and have Juliet make a few homemade gifts for her daddy. (My usual trend is to wait until the night before and hastily throw something together!)

She can’t write yet, but she sure can talk. I decided to record some of her thoughts one afternoon in a “Thank You God for Daddy” poem.

I envisioned her sitting down with me and listening as I explained to her that God made a special daddy just for her. She would immediately be grateful and join me in a prayer of thankfulness for daddies…

That is not what happened at all.

Instead, she sat for about 2 seconds before jumping up and running away.

I yelled to her, “Why are you thankful for your daddy?”

“Huh?”

“How can we thank God for daddy?”

“Look! An airplane!”

Okay. Let’s try this a different way: “What do you like about daddy?”

“Oh. I like when he lifts me up!”

So, for the following ten minutes, as she raced around the backyard, I kept asking her what she liked about her daddy. She got more and more into it and gave me some memorable Juliet phrases. I scribbled them down on my piece of paper to be used later.

After she was in bed, I got on the computer and went to Wordle.net to create the card. If you’ve never used this site, it’s really easy. You just type in whatever words and phrases you would like to appear on your page and then it scrambles it and gives you different font combinations.

Since I wanted my card to read a certain way, I had to do a few things.

1. Words that you want to appear the largest need to be typed in multiple times. I typed in Thank You God for My Daddy at least ten times. (The words will only appear once, but the more “Daddy” s you have, the bigger it will be.)

2. Phrases had to be pushed together. I chose to separate the words with periods, but you could use dashes or some other symbol or even just let the words all run together without spaces.

3. After typing in my words and phrases, I hit the “submit” button and it gave me my first option. I didn’t like it because it read “My Daddy Thank You God” . I kept hitting randomize until I came to the option that I liked the best. You can print out as many pages as you like and even save your creation to a public page if you want to share it with the world.

Try it out! It’s really easy and you can play around with it until you get the look you want. It’s a fun (and free!) way to preserve your kids’ thoughts and cute phrases.

You could use it as a card or even frame it to make it look even more fancy–and hopefully, your gratitude/thankfulness discussion will go better than mine did!

(If you are looking for some good children’s books about daddies, I’ve compiled a Father’s Day Booklist that features our favorites!)

Last night Lydia and I did an experiment based on the Seeds Worship Song called “The Mouth”. It’s from the Seeds of Praise CD. And it is based on Matthew 12:34:

For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

This is a really fun experiment my husband and I used to do in our children’s ministry. It’s such a perfect example of this verse.

First, I grabbed 2 mason jars, some dixie cups and a bunch of yucky stuff: oil, dirt, mud, rocks and dead leaves. Then I found some yummy stuff lurking in our kitchen: an old can of strawberry soda, some orange juice, frozen cherries and ice.

Lydia and I poured all the gross stuff in one jar. I pretended we were just making something together. I didn’t talk about it being gross or nasty. I let her smell the oil and see what she thought.

Then we filled the second jar with the sweet smelling ingredients.

I asked her, “What happens if I pour out this jar full of dirty stuff?” She said, “Dirty stuff will come out.” So, I poured a little dixie cup full of the oil-dirt drink and a cup of the strawberry-oj. I let her decide which one she’d rather drink.

She easily picked the sweet juice. I let her drink it and she thought it was delicious.

Then I said, “Lydia, let’s pretend this dirty jar is your heart. If you put dirty things in your heart like bad attitudes, whining and disobedience, guess what’s going to come out of your mouth? Dirty bad things.” Then I proceeded to whine and complain as I poured the sludge into a cup.

I showed her the strawberry jar again and said, “But if you can fill your heart with scriptures like Philippians 2:14 and Honor Your Father and Mother and other ones that we learned. Guess what will come out of your mouth? That’s right, good words. Pleasing, gentle, nice words.”

Then we turned on “The Mouth” song again and sang along as we went off to take a bath. I think it was a brilliant (as in bright, not genius!) picture of what God asks of us and desires for our heart!

See how easy that was? Use whatever you’ve got to tell your kids about God’s Word!

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Now, if you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered in our Seeds Family Worship CD giveaway. And if you do THIS activity with your kids, blog it and leave the link on our MckLinky, you’ll get FIVE additional entries! If you have NO idea what I’m talking about, see our Ultimate Blog Party intro page!

A couple of weeks ago I saw Kristen’s post about Mason nerfing cancer, and his wish to hold the WORLD’S LARGEST NERF PARTY! I knew we needed to join in, because we love Nerf, and we have a family friend named Joshua who is in battle with cancer right now – he is 12 years old and just started chemotherapy this week.  So to honor Mason and Joshua, and to satisfy our love of Nerf, we found some super fun Nerf guns (of the pellet and the ball variety) and have been having fun with them for the past couple of weeks.

I had hoped to have Elias’s best friend over for our official Nerf party, but due to scheduling conflicts, it wound up being just us.  And I didn’t get many pictures, because as one of the main targets, I was constantly on the run.  But here are pictures from prep time…

This post is linked up to The World’s Largest Nerf Party!

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone!  I have not one lick of Irish in me, but green is my favorite color, and I love the story of the real Saint Patrick, so let’s celebrate!

First of all, you need to know the story of the real Saint Patrick.  I’m sad to say I did not know a thing until I watched Lutfi’s Fanciful Flannelgraph from the VeggieTales – Sumo Of The Opera DVD.  I love Lufti and his little flannelgraph – you need to see this!  It gives you a nice synopsis of Saint Patrick’s story in about 5 entertaining minutes that you and your kids will love!

Once you see it, go grab some paint and some potatoes, because we’re going to make shamrock potato stamps that will help illustrate the Trinity for our children – the same way Saint Patrick used shamrocks to illustrate the Trinity to the Irish.

Using a pencil, outline a shamrock shape (3 leaves only for the illustration!  a 4 leaf clover won’t do!) onto half of a cut potato.  Then use a paring knife to carefully carve away the outline – I only cut about a quarter of an inch away below the design, and it was plenty.  Give the kids some paper, some paint, and let them stamp away.

Did you know that Saint Patrick used to be associated with the color blue?  Since blue’s a favorite in our house, we used it as well as the traditional green.

As the boys stamped, I sang a simple little song that I remember from way back – sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping”/”Frere Jacques”:

By the time we finished stamping, Elias was singing along with me.  I used the shamrock to show him how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three different things, like the leaves on the shamrock, but they are all a part of the one God, like the whole shamrock.

What a wonderful example Saint Patrick has given us – not only the illustration of the shamrock for the Trinity, but also of his heart for those who do not know the Lord!  I pray that we all might follow his example.

How about you – are you and your kids doing anything fun this Saint Patrick’s Day?

Disclaimer:  I am a part of Amazon.com’s affiliate program, so if you purchase items from Amazon.comthrough the links in this post, I will receive a small affiliate payment at no additional cost to you.

Submitted to We are THAT Family’s Work For Me Wednesday!

God wants us to be Nature Lovers, enjoying His creation. Genesis 1:25 is in the middle of the creation story, and it says, “God made all kinds of wild animals and livestock.  He made all kinds of animals that move along the ground.  And God saw that it was good.”

Of course He wants us to love nature!  And who wouldn’t be a nature lover?  His creation is amazing – full of beauty and splendor, power and mystery.  When I saw this on the Christian Characteristic Traits list that we’re working through, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Except… I have a hard time loving nature at times (late summer comes to mind).  And spring is actually my least favorite time in nature right now.  Isn’t that backwards?  The entire world is bursting forth with new life and beauty, and I prefer to drive through it with my windows up tight.  Because spring in our house = asthma.  All of that yellow pollen swirling around and… pollenating… things causes allergic reactions in my son and brings on weeks of asthma-related breathing problems.

So even setting aside my aversion to all things buggy and my intense dislike of heat, I still want to hole up in my house during the most glorious time of the year to be out in nature.  We are working on some different things that could help change that for us this year, but how do I instill a love of nature in my children when we can’t be outside?

We bring the outside in.  Meet Winnie.

A little duck-thingie purchased on rock-bottom sale in the middle of deep winter – is bringing some of the outside in… cultivating a love of growing things (I hope!)… getting us excited for a spring we may or may not be able to spend a lot of time enjoying outside.  But even if we learn about God’s creation from the “safety” of our pollen-free home, we are still learning to love it and take care of it.

You can make a little grass-seed-head yourself with some potting soil, grass seeds, and some old pantyhose.  Beak and googly eyes are optional.  Place seeds in a portion of pantyhose and cover with soil, tying the  pantyhose shut with a knot.  Leave a length of the pantyhose attached under the knot, to help wick water up into your grass-head-thingy.  The place where the seeds are will become the top of the head of your… creature. Soak the ball of dirt and seeds in a cup of water until soaked through, and place in a small cup/vase of water with the wick-end down, grass seed end up.  Cover for a week with a plastic container (helps create humidity and warmth so seeds will germinate and start to grow).  Peeking is allowed during this time, but be sure to keep it covered when the peeking is done.

In about a week, you will see your first grassy hairs poking through.  And in another week… well, you’ll get something like this:

Poor Winnie, with the sparse hair.  I think he’s the only duck out there with a uni-brow (see the single blade of grass growing up between his eyes?).  Elias and Donovan will be able to give him a hair cut soon, just to get the ends evened up, I think.  He still needs some time to grow and fill in before we do any big styling changes.

So even if weather (the never-ending winter!) or allergies won’t let you outside to enjoy nature, you can bring a bit of God’s creation in to your kids.

Please share… do you have any special ways to help your kids learn to love nature without leaving your house?

Elohim means “Strength” or “Power.”  He is transcendent, mighty, and strong.  Elohim is the great name of God, signifying supreme power, sovereignty, and a covenant relationship that He is ever faithful to keep.

Genesis 17:7-8

“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.  I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

A little puff of our “wind” can move a cotton ball across a room.  God’s mighty power is shown in His wind, which is greater than any wind we can blow.

Idea from here.

Lord, we praise you for Your power!

Infinite means endless – subject to no limitation.  We cannot speak of measure, amount, size, or weight and at the same time be speaking of God, for He is beyond measurement.  God has no beginning, no end, and no limits!

Romans 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

Psalm 147:5

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.

Job 11:7

“Can you discover the depths of God?
Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?”

Remember trying to see forever in 3-way dressing room mirrors?  We tried to see forever, and while we could see a long way, we could never see the end!

(We couldn’t get a clear picture, either…)

Thank you for being our “Almighty Infinite Father!”

Continuing on our theme of respect, we are learning to respect God’s word!  I have a couple verses we will be sharing about God’s word, and we started with a new memory verse… Do not merely listen to the word.  Do what it says.  James 1:22

I really want to impress on Elias that God’s word is truth, and we need to not only listen to the word (stories, rules, promises, etc), we need to actually do what it says.  I want this to help lay the foundation for respect and obedience to God.

So in the spirit of doing, we did a memory verse activity game – something to get Elias moving and doing…

To prepare, write and cut out 2 sets of the individual words in the Bible verse… we’re doing another matching game, so the different colors for the words help a lot.

Then we placed one set of words at the far end of our living room, and I sat at the other end and handed Elias the words of the Bible verse in order, having him run to the other end of the room to match up the words and bring them back.  I have a video to illustrate (and some words to say about the video: see note at bottom of post):

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Elias had a lot of fun doing this – and despite Donovan’s fussing in the background, he had fun, too – once I made sure he had 2 pieces of paper in his hands, just like Elias.  If you have a chance, double check yourself with the words – I was missing a couple words on the coffee table, so the nice little edit you see in the middle of the video was actually me running to the other end of the room to figure out what I did wrong, tripping over both boys in the process, and generally creating mayhem.  Ehem…

After the activity, we strung the words together to hang our verse up – this is so easy!  I’ll be making banners like this for everything in the future!

All I did was punch a hole in each top corner of the word and string them on some yarn – WAY too easy!  Not as pretty as some of the bunting that is out there right now, but a quick and fun alternative!

I really like that this is out in the main rooms of our house for everyone to see – I already have it memorized, and it is a constant reminder for me to set a good example for the boys, and really work on obeying God’s word in all I do.

**Note on video – a quick apology for the state of my living room – you get a far away view of my sewing corner… and the coffee table is pushed over to the side like that to prevent the boys from playing with my sewing stuff.  It’s just how our home functions on a daily basis, and it’s not the showcase I’d like it to be… and now I know why Josh thinks I talk too loud.  Man – I am loud!  OK – enough apologizing about the video – I’m just nervous because it’s my first time to post one… and now I’m over it!

Where two or three people meet together in my name, I am there with them. Matthew 18:20 (NIrV)

I’ve continued to talk to Elias about the times that God is there with us, and we are focusing right now on showing respect during those times – specifically at church.  I wanted to do something together that represented a church… and I’ve been wanting to do something cool like these leaves, which got me thinking about waxed paper stained glass windows like these…

While our church building does not have stained glass windows, Elias does sing in a children’s choir at a church in downtown Richmond that has beautiful stained glass windows.  So it was easy to make the connection with him about God’s presence being with us in a church, and that some churches have stained glass windows.

…so while I was thinking about making some cool stained glass windows with crayon shavings, I started thinking about a bag of brightly colored marshmallows sitting in my pantry (I popped the bag in my grocery cart a while ago, not knowing what to do with it, but I figured the boys would love whatever we did…).

What do marshmallows and crayons have in common?  They melt! And could possibly make some beautiful wax paper stained glass windows.  Depending on how you do it….

Let’s gather some supplies:

A bag of neon marshmallows, some wax paper, some no-stick cooking spray, and an iron.

Tear off 2 squares of wax paper, and draw a picture of a “stained glass window” on one side of a square… Flip the wax paper over and spray the other side with the no-stick cooking spray.

Give your child the freshly-sprayed wax paper design and a handful of neon marshmallows.

Then another handful, as he has already scarfed down the first one.

Then show him how he can use the different colors to fill in each different part of the stained glass design.  And give him another handful of marshmallows.

And give the other kid at the other end of the table a handful of marshmallows, too.  So he doesn’t feel left out.

No, he’s fine.

Spray one side of the blank wax paper with no-stick cooking spray, and lay it over the saccharine-flavored stained glass design your little one made.

Iron.

And then turn up the iron a bit more until the marshmallows actually start to melt together.

Then realize that you need to wait longer to try to unveil the masterpiece, because melty marshmallows take a minute to cool down.

OK – they need more than a minute.  They need a half an hour in the fridge.

And then several hours in the freezer.

And they definitely needed more no-stick spray.  Because they were still sticky.  Even after several hours in the freezer.

But it’s OK that it took hours and didn’t turn out the way you expected.  Because you got a picture of these cheeks deep in concentration.

Concentrating on making a cross all on his own.

And pictures of the other little guy, enjoying the sugar rush and time with his big brother.

You know, I get so worked up trying to think of the perfect activity for my boys, so consumed with perfectly conveying whatever lesson I want them to learn…  I forget the important part is spending time with them.

And when I get discouraged that they don’t want to do the craft I prepared?  I need to step back and let them do the craft (or no craft) that they want to do (haven’t I said this before?).  And enjoy the time with them.  Laugh with them.

And I need to learn whatever lesson I’ve planned in my heart – and model it for them. What does it tell my kids about how much I respect God’s sanctuary when I take off my shoes in the middle of worship?  It’s a little thing, but it says tells my boys that I don’t have enough respect to keep my shoes on.

That’s what I’ll be working on from now on… not the perfect lesson or craft, but my heart. Living out Christ’s life in me is the best lesson I can prepare for my boys.

Sometimes you need a craft that is also a stay-at-the-table-and-don’t-run-around-the-house activity. This is one of those…

Basically, I wrote the word KIND on a giant piece of newsprint. (I pride myself on writing fonts by hand but this is not one of my best examples.) Then I gave Lydia a STACK of old magazines, a pair of scissors and a glue stick. I had her look through the magazines until she found a picture of clothes.

Then she could cut out the clothes and glue it on the word KIND. Remember our verse says we should put on KINDNESS as if it were our CLOTHES. So, here we are putting CLOTHES on the word KIND. A little backwards but I think it reiterated the point!

My tips & thoughts:
1. This thing actually took us 2 different days! It’s very time consuming because she really looked through the magazines for the clothes she liked best! (Maybe it’s a girl thing?!)

2. She cannot see how to cut out a small picture when it is in the middle of a giant picture. For example, if she wanted to cut out a kid’s shirt and that kid was on a swing in the middle of a playground, I had to draw a box around the shirt and make sure the lines extended to the end of the paper. Then she could see where her scissors needed to begin & go.

3. We got to talk about how all the clothes got “put on”. The gloves go on the hand, the buttoning of the pants, the hat on the head, the dress versus the shirt. It was a good conversation starter for “putting on” kindness.

4. Use a good pair of scissors. I have these random plastic things that I discovered in my craft stuff. I am officially throwing them away and buying a real pair of scissors. They could not cut magazine paper without chewing the edges!

5. We hung her KIND SIGN on the front of her closet door. She thought this was so smart. Now every day she stands next to it to admire it. And she usually says, “I like my sign!” or something equally profound. Unfortunately, it kinda reminded me of the day when she’s 14 and pulling pictures out of magazines and taping them to her walls…